THE COMPANY

The JMD&Co team helps heritage organisations recognise and capitalise on the potential of their front-of-house staff and volunteers. The company designs practical workshops on interacting with visitors, devising and delivering guided tours, and leading educational activities for school, family and adult learning groups.

The company develops training for front-of-house staff based on a blend of roles appropriate to the organisation. JMD&Co’s approach was developed in collaboration the Royal Collection team when Buckingham Palace opened to the public more than a decade ago. Since then, training for the wardens who welcome visitors on behalf of the Royal Household has been refined to reflect the demands of their role. They are:

HOSTS making people feel at home in the grandeur of the State Apartments

AMBASSADORS who represent HM The Queen at her home and place of work

GUARDIANS of the treasures on display in the palace and Queen’s Gallery

EXPERTS on the palace’s history and contents

TEAM MEMBERS committed to supporting each other and working together to provide the best possible experience for visitors.

JMD&Co also undertakes evaluations of front-of-house staff to benchmark performance and diagnose recruitment and training needs. The Roman Baths in Bath commissioned a study which investigated the success of specific roles played by costumed interpreters, reactions to guided tours, and visitors’ perceptions of a new audiovisual presentation. Visitors identified their priorities as:

DIRECTORDR JANE MALCOLM-DAVIES

Jane Malcolm-Davies is the director of JMD&Co. She studied for a doctorate in heritage management at the University of Surrey (where she lectured in tourist attraction and events management) and has been a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton (Winchester School of Art) and the University of the Highlands & Islands (Perth College). Previously, Jane managed major event programmes for historic houses, local councils and private corporate clients.

Jane Malcolm-Davies also works with The Tudor Tailor researching publications on sixteenth century dress and best practice in reconstructing historic costume for heritage sites. Please visit: www.tudortailor.com for more details.

See also the Costume Research Image Library at www.tudoreffigies.co.uk, a database of photographs of church effigies for researchers into sixteenth century dress.

A summary of Jane's research method for evaluating front-of-house staff is available below.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Jane Malcolm-Davies studied journalism and worked briefly on weekly newspapers Building Design and Screen International before joining hundreds of costumed volunteers in an annual recreation of Tudor life at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk. This alerted her to the potential for costumed presentations of the past at historic buildings and she studied for a diploma in heritage interpretation. This included a survey of costumes in use at UK sites which suggested there was a need for professional advice to improve the quality and professionalism of what was on offer. Jane collaborated with Caroline Johnson, who had experience of researching techniques for reconstructing accurate historic dress. In 1992, they joined the team which introduced costumed interpreters to Hampton Court Palace, where they were contracted to recruit, train and manage a full-time team of interpreters. They also researched and made costumes in collaboration with specialists, including Ninya Mikhala, until 2004. Jane studied for her doctorate at the University of Surrey and in 2003 won the Best Paper Award at the European Tourism, Leisure & Hospitality Research Conference in Barcelona for a summary of her findings. Since then, Jane has worked for many heritage organisations and at several World Heritage Sites to develop the role of staff in visitor experiences and improve front-of-house presentation. She has been a finalist in Cosmopolitan’s Women of Achievement awards (1994) for her entrepreneurship in tourism and won an Interpret Britain award for presentation at Hampton Court Palace (1996). Jane has a diploma in law and volunteers as an advisor with Citizens Advice in Godalming and Ash Vale. Jane is also a lecturer in heritage tourism and visitor attractions management, having worked at the University of Surrey, Farnborough College of Technology and been post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton and the University of the Highlands & Islands.

Chair of The Costume Society’s Men in Skirts study day, April 2002, Victoria & Albert Museum

Papers presented at European Open Air Museums Directors’ Forum, March 1998: ‘Historic Royal Palaces’ interpretation and management strategy’ and ‘Managing quality live interpretation’

Paper presented at the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums’ annual conference, June 2004, The Henry Ford Museum, Michigan: Benchmarking the performance of front-of-house staff at historic sites Paper presented at the Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences, June 2004 – published in proceedings: The educational role of front-of-house staff in the visitor experience at heritage attractions Paper presented at the 3rd International Tourism and Festivals Research Conference, organised by Sheffield Hallam University, Innsbruck, May 2004 – published in proceedings: Costume as communication at historic sites